sAlem WITCH TRiALS
by soldier against the numbers
Summary: AU. 'She daydreams of a fuming Shinigami and his subordinates clumsily tripping all over each other to appease their deity. My son is gone, my son is gone, oh how the Witch would give to see the spectacle from beginning to end. And it's all coming together. While they trip and fumble and worship, the boy is slowly turning into the strength that he had once stood against, long ago.'
1. bIrth

**bIrth**

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_A new baby is like the beginning of all things-wonder, hope, a dream of possibilities._

-Eda J. Le Shan

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The sky overhead is a funeral shroud, hiding away the latest exploits of the snake Witch hiding out in an alley.

No moon is here to betray her to anyone walking around in the city. Stars are not a problem ― they cannot illuminate the scene: A mother, hunched over her newborn baby. But this time it is a Witch who has given birth to a new member of her kin.

_A wondrous time for a Witch to be born._

Medusa Gorgon's eyes shine dull gold despite the absence of light and with a thousand plans of battle playing and re-playing in her mind.

Without her consent, the tattoo snake coils down from her arms and to the Witchling wrapped in swaddling. The snake hisses in the child's ear, soothing it and stopping it from wailing even more.

Medusa's eyes drift to her baby.

Face a bright pink, eyes closed, minuscule hands balled up into just-as-minuscule fists, strands of light pink hair peeking out from behind the swaddling cloth.

The mother Witch smiles a snake smile. "You will be useful to my cause . . . my Crona."

The night air whispers promises of a burning Shibusen, a dying Shinigami, and a reigning race that would rule all.

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**REVIEW DAMMIT!**


	2. GaTHERinG

**HUZZAH FOR RIGHT GRAMMING!**

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**GaTHERinG**

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_Babies are always more trouble than you thought - and more wonderful. _

~ Charles Osgood

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Crona Gorgon attends her first Witch Mass by the time she can walk without falling to the ground. Medusa Gorgon will not have her offspring embarrass herself in front of a thousand pairs of judging eyes.

(She thinks it best; she wants a Gorgon Witch to hold her head high. Arachne Gorgon may have created that which threatens to destroy all Witchkind, and Shaula Gorgon may have disappeared from the face of the earth, but the remaining sister and her child will flaunt their lineage and their power.)

"Mama."

Medusa frowns. She's never asked the child to say 'mama' like Human mothers. She's never asked anything verbal from the child. Crona is too young. The Witchling will learn magic when the time is right, when the omens declare it so.

The mother Witch turns her gaze to the young girl clutching to the fabric of her coat. Crona's eyes are blue, so blue. So wide. So naïve.

Medusa wishes to let go of the caring facade that she uses to make the child trust her.

Wishes that the child will grow up faster, so that Medusa can train her for the battle with Shibusen.

Wishes to _just get the damn business over with already._

But not just yet, she tells herself. Medusa has lived for eight hundred years, approximately. What's a few more years?

"Yes, Crona?"

"Home."

It takes her a while, just a few seconds to get the message. "Give me some more time. We'll be home soon."

The girl nods.

Medusa allows herself a smile. Parenting may be better than she'd expected.

* * *

_"Joma joma dabarasa."_

The final greetings had been given, and Medusa was free to return home with her Witchling.

… Which was good since Crona had taken to falling asleep halfway through the Mass.

Medusa's mode of transportation was a simple broom. If two people could simply find their balance, they wouldn't fall off. Medusa is accustomed to it. But not her daughter.

She once woke up to find her broom at the foot of a tree, and Crona wailing in pain in the branches. _Shinigami_, it took _ages_ for the Witchling to _stop_.

It's good that Crona's asleep. She's been dreading flying on the broom for days.

Medusa carries her small daughter in her arms as they fly on home.

While Medusa is lost in thought, Crona murmurs something while still in the land of dreams:

"I love you, mama."

Kids these days. Learning words from places that mothers have never known about.

* * *

**Its nine in the evening and I still haven't caught a break.**

**Don't kill me.**

**P.S. Crona's the child of a Witch. Therefore, Crona is a boy because he exhibits no magic. If Medusa was perfectly fine with having a son, then why would she treat 'him' like garbage? Thus, Medusa's going to be a little more tolerating towards her 'daughter'. But that still won't take away the impatience.**

**I think Medusa put Crona in a dress as a boy to humiliate him or something, or maybe she was trying to think of him as the daughter she always wanted.**

**I'm using 'hir' for shits and giggles only in Insanity's Peal. **


	3. omENs

**I send my thanks to Negitoro In My Heart, ****Imak1299, KuriSari, and shizoid7loner.**

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**omENs**

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_"Once you make a decision, the universe conspires to make it happen." _

― Ralph Waldo Emerson**  
**

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Medusa Gorgon feels like she's having so much good luck in life (unlike _another_ string of life where everything has fallen everywhere else besides the way she wants).

Medusa runs the sentence in her head over and over and over and over just to make sure she's not jumping to conclusions out of excitement:

_The omens will hint at the magic the Witchling is going to specialize in._

The vase had been broken mere minutes ago, and now... now Crona, about eight years old, is in front of it, breaking and fixing it without the use of her hands. The Witchling was simply_ staring_ at it, and at times giggling and clapping in approval of the vase piecing itself back together again after being broken.

(Well, Medusa _assumed_ Crona was the one doing it. There was no way the elder Witch was doing it, and she was sure there were no souls or ghosts in their home.)

Medusa had, at first, panicked. If her child had no want for destruction, that is, sway of magic, then it would be a stain on the Gorgon name. Crona would be an outcast. Maybe eventually Shibusen would find a way to take her. Medusa had heard rumors of a raccoon-dog witch who found her way into that accursed school.

It made her want to vomit.

But then Medusa noticed the repetition. The vase broke and fixed, broke and fixed, broke and fixed. It looked as if there was someone who was pressing the rewind and play buttons on a remote.

Medusa feels like the happiest Witch in the world, because if she's right, then Crona will be able to use the rarest magic of all:

_Time._

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**Crona=Cronus(Titan of time)**

**Medusa=Medusa(the Gorgon)**

**What? I had to fit in with the themes. Also, I'm going to work on this story more often. It's fun.**

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**QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS ****QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS QUESTIONS**

_Q:_ But, in this, will Ragnarok be injected into Crona? Or not? It would be cool if he had a human form :)

_A: _Nope, since Crona's already a Witch and will have the best possible firepower Medusa can acquire from a Witch, there will be no "Ragnarok in Crona's body". Crona will be way too powerful. The point of this story is to see how Medusa might react if she had a Witch for a child. But Ragnarok _will_ show up.

… I'm thinking Soul, because Cronus overthrew Uranus with a scythe. But then again, Maka would be a good choice.


	4. PREsentS

**I REGRET BOTH EVERYTHING AND NOTHING. **

**IT'S ELEVEN PM. DON'T GIVE ME THAT LOOK.**

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**PREsentS**

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_I have found that among its other benefits, giving liberates the soul of the giver. _

~ Maya Angelou_**  
**_

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For Crona's ninth birthday, Medusa gives the Witchling a pair of magic-suppressing shackles.

For Crona, they look like the large bangles pretty women wear nowadays. The girl _loves_ them. Best of all, they're from Lady Medusa, and she said that the shackles were made specially for her.

"Now as the name implies, they suppress magic. You'll only be able to use a small part of your magic in order to keep it from going out of control. Until you are able to use all of your magic without anything not of your will happening, these will stay on."

Medusa chants; her magic forces the shackles open. Then she places the opened rings around Crona's wrists. The bracelets close up.

Crona looks at them, scrutinizing the details. Ornate hands ― hands that should belong on a clock ― are engraved onto it. She looks up at her mother.

"They're too big, Lady Medusa."

"They will grow smaller and smaller until they fit you perfectly. I expect that by tomorrow they will be according to a size you will be comfortable with. We begin training tomorrow."

The Witchling bows her head. "Yes, my lady."

Everything's coming along well.

* * *

Crona stays up late the next night, practicing on falling leaves.

Medusa stands on the porch of the house holding a candlelit lamp and a blanket. She sees her daughter lying near one of the trees, the marble (possibly) in her hand, sleeping as though dead.

She may very well be dead.

The breeze that blows through isn't one of the warmest Medusa's ever felt, no siree.

"Pick her up," she commands the tattoo snake on her arm. The snake slinks off her arm to grab the child, though not too roughly. Crona needs rest. Tomorrow maybe results would be in and the plan would be smooth sailing.

The snake puts the Witchling into the mother's waiting arms. Medusa wraps up her daughter in the blanket. The snake holds the only light in the area.

She goes inside the house to bring her daughter to bed and to retire herself.

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**God i need to make a poll page right about now...**

**QUESTIONSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!**

**_Q:_** And I don't think it should be free hosting Ragnarok anymore, he's immortal, he wouldn't need it. Maybe Eruka?

_**A:**_ Totally agree on that one. Besides, if the host dies, then the blood pretty much becomes null. Or maybe with enough willpower, the blood can control the body. Hmm... but no, not Eruka. We need someone with a little more importance to the story. I don't really plan to have Free or Eruka or the Mizunes on board.

_**Q:** _Anyway, does Crona have a familiar like Medusa? You know...what the snake tattoo is? Why isn't Medusa as terrible as she probably should be? And also, is Crona still capable of being a meister? I'm VERY curious about all this.

_**A:**_ Well, as a time witch, I don't think Crona-onna's going to have a familiar. I think Medusa's acting terrible to Crona in canon because she wants to change the world, watch it grow. What more could you want from a time magic user? Like I've been writing, everything in the story is going according to everything Medusa wants. (*coughcough*unlike canon*coughcough*) And possibly because Medusa wants to keep the Gorgon pride afloat. She can't do that with a son, now can she? Oh, and Crona's more specialized in magic. Ragnarok's going to be Team Gorgon's muscle power.

_**Q: **_So, what will her theme be? Clocks to represent time? If Ragnarok isn't injected in her then wouldn't he just appear as a little (maybe big) demon, cause isn't that just what he is: a demon sword?

_**A:**_ I think you received your answer from this chapter:

"_Crona looks at them, scrutinizing the details. Ornate hands ― hands that should belong on a **clock** ― are engraved onto it."_

And we're still trying to figure out who exactly will receive the Black Blood and Ragnarok. Get ready with your candidates, because one of these days I will put up the poll and I hope to see the votes skyrocket!


	5. BURning BUILding

**I'M BAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACK.**

**W000T!**

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**BURning BUILding**

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_The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done._

~ George Carlin

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The village whose name escapes Medusa burns.

It's hellfire, beautiful to behold, and the ring of snakes beyond the burning cluster of kindling sets to work on poisoning whoever tries to leave. Their work is being done well. Crona has done well. The talismans that were put on the trees nearby have a special property―they share the mind of the person whose blood was utilized as ink for the command.

Medusa looks at the wrap of gauze that is hidden behind Crona's sleeve.

She smiles her snake smile. Nothing is better than knowing that soon her dreams will be realized. But there is still something missing.

Oh, but it's not about her daughter. Crona's as good as it's ever going to get.

Crona yawns.

Medusa looks at her firstborn, not anymore a Witchling, but a Witch, a better Witch than any Medusa has ever beheld, with hair as pink as roses and garb whiter than ivory and eyes full of death.

"My Lady, is the test done now?"

Medusa looks tenderly at the daughter of her dreams.

"Of course, Crona. It's pasta for dinner, then. And tomorrow, we will set to work on finding a Demon Sword."

"As it pleases Lady Medusa."

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**POLL IS UP! VOTE NOW OR LOSE YOUR CHANCE!**


	6. ReflEctIOn

**VOTE FOR RAGNAROK'S FORM ALREADY (it's on my profile). HURRY IT UP. THIS IS AS MUCH AS I CAN STALL.**

**...**

**Switching from Mamadusa's POV to Fem!Crona's.**

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**ReflEctIOn**

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****_The general who wins the battle makes many calculations in his temple before the battle is fought. The general who loses makes but few calculations beforehand. _

~ Sun Tzu

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Crona Gorgon empties the sack containing the day's spoils. She does it carefully, as per her lady mother's instructions.

The souls make themselves at home. Each has a place equidistant from one another.

If the young Witch is correct, the souls counted amount to about a hundred.

"Well. At least humans aren't all _that_ useless."

These tiny blue balls of spiritual particles are to be used as bait for catching a Demon Sword. Rumor has it that it had been wandering around Europe for a while, so Lady Medusa would enlist her daughter's help to ensnare herself an ally. If it was food it wanted, then it would be in for a treat. For the last order of business and the cherry on top, Crona herself would pluck a soul from the corpse of a Shibusen student to give to the Demon Sword to eat.

And maybe somewhere down the line, maybe the Time Witch could even take down a graduate.

Till then Crona would be stuck with the task of preparing the Demon Sword's feast. Lady Medusa would take care of the not-so-small fry.

Which reminded her: a teacher from the Shibusen had almost scratched Medusa. His name, she remembered, was Barett.

It made her skin crawl and her lips curl.

"Fight back all you wish, we won't stop till we win," she told the disembodied souls.

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**Ah six, the number of the demon...**


	7. PRELIMS

**You know what? Fk school. Now see the name SamIAmNot in blue? Click on the btch and vote for the Demon Sword's motherfking container. **

**I AM GIVING YOU THIS ONE CHAPTER, ALONG WITH THE REST OF MY PATIENCE. I CAN ONLY HOLD THIS STORY LIKE I HOLD MY OWN PEE WHEN IT'S COLD.**

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**PRELIMS**

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_In the end, my reasons for moving down the timeline and introducing a new cast have more to do with keeping myself entertained, on the assumption that if I get bored, my readers are going to be even more bored._  
~ Raymond E. Feist

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**Own Form (Demon)**

Crona pushes herself out of the inches-deep impression and lands on the snow-covered concrete in relatively bad health ― she believes she's cracked about half of her ribs.

Her insides are screaming in pain; her mind is screaming at her to _get it over with before you die._

She spits out blood onto the white.

In front of her, the Demon Sword, a black hulking form of a beast, feasts on the souls she had reaped for it. _Way to give your regards to the chef, you bastard._

Crona hoists up the bloody sword and sprints to her quarry... or her doom.

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**Own Form (Sword)**

In the basilica of Santa Mario Novella, Crona Gorgon is elated at the fact that she has someone's ass to kick.

"You, little girl, haven't got a clue who you're really dealing with."

But Demon Swords put a damper on the elation. She waves her hand dismissively. "Yes, yes, O Great Demon Sword. I know _nothing_ of your real power. But save it. You had your fun; I'll be having mine. Tell the lady that I'll be here a while."

The Sword growls. Then he relents. "Your funeral." The Sword comes back the way it came, across the bloody floor and past the doors.

The shinigami she has marked as her opponent tries to stop her accomplice. She casts her spell of paused time on his body. The Sword leaves nice and easy.

In those moments of his stillness she observes his features. She sees a pampered little soldier, and a prestigious one at that. If the colors aren't anything to go by, then it should be crystal clear by the little brooch on his neck.

She is going to _tear him apart, s__lowly and painfully._

She slinks a finger underneath his face, frozen in time.

"You are _so_ mine."

She hears the Sword trash-talking from outside, and another countering his insults. She pays it no mind.

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**Soul Evans**

The Human is completely possessed by the melted-down Demon Sword. Medusa watches as the test subject meets his new benefactor for the first time, grit and pain and blood and all.

Crona wished to kill the thing at first, but the lady had other plans.

The Black Blood and the Demon Sword made a perfect combination. The Human's value was upped when she found it was really a Weapon, and a scythe to be precise. Those types were rare. The Witches had hit the jackpot.

Now to see if the entire thing actually could work.

The boy writhes and screams. It's an annoying noise, a noise only made by the weak. Crona does not believe this worm can contain a piece of concentrated insanity and a Demon Sword.

But she is proven wrong. As soon as it begins, the Human stops all movement, all activity. It goes limp. It looks as though she is right, but then she hears the Demon Sword's insolence from within the scrawny body.

"Hmm... feels good... A little cramped, but good."

How fascinating they are, those humans.

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**Death the Kid**

She forever reveres Lady Medusa (as if she isn't already) for her grace in handling this message.

The Shinigami Boy has retched plenty of Black Blood out (six days! Something for the history books, no?) but after Medusa has made her modifications the last eight syringes had made their way into the godling's bloodstream and have made him the strongest living organism that has ever walked the earth.

Well, maybe we can all just scratch out the "walked the earth" part and replace it with "known", shall we?

Because he's chained to the wall at the moment.

"Nothing to say?"

He keeps quiet.

She makes a sound that is part frustration and part boredom. The chambers echo on and on and on. Crona opens her eyes.

She daydreams of a fuming Shinigami and his subordinates clumsily tripping all over each other to appease their deity. _My son is gon, my son is gone,_ oh how the Witch would give to see the spectacle from beginning to end.

And it's all coming together. While they trip and fumble and worship, the boy is slowly turning into the strength that he had once stood against, long ago.

Crona kneels on the floor, just in front of the scowling Shinigami Boy. "Never mind. I'll just imagine what happens when Ragnarok takes you over. And the look your god's face, and everyone else too, will be the icing on the cake."

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**Black Star**

He stands over the corpses of the dead students, holding the female's soul in his hands. A tongue travels over the cracked, dry lips. How mere students have managed to stumble upon their abode is a mystery to them now, because their lifeblood has now been emptied onto the ground.

Dead men tell no tales; it's better that way.

"Weak."

Crona Gorgon stares at the last of the Star Clan. "I agree."

"Come, both of you," Medusa calls out, pulling the hood of her coat over her head, "we need to go on a little trip, just the three of us."

Trips mean playing with Death Scythes. Africa's next on the list. Crona has always wanted to kill a lion with magic.

"Demon Sword, eat already. It will take a while for us to get there."

The blue-haired container eats the soul of the Demon Weapon whose name may have been Tsubaki.

* * *

**Maka Albarn**

The Technician girl must have been given a hell of a lot of Black Blood. The Demon Sword has not been handed to her yet, and already the effects, unfamiliar as they may be, are already happening.

Crona watches from the cell door as the girl giggles to herself in wide-eyed amusement. It rolls, bites its fingers, and lists down names and dates and places which she can still remember.

The container finally comes to an agreement on a name:

Soul Eater.

She grins while sinking her fingers into the stone. The more she chants, the deeper. She cracks the stone, there's chunks or rock breaking up in her hands, she's screaming her name now, her arms are already sunk in halfway to the elbow, she goes on and on and on. Her head twists around to see her visitors.

"Pancakes?"

And then she pulverizes another foot of aged stone into dust. She laughs maniacally. The Demon Sword, somewhere behind the Witch, laughs in tandem.

"I might actually _like_ you, little Human," Crona says to herself, more than the insane little girl.


	8. pLAnS

**I did this for all the KidXCrona fans out there. This is not my forte. There are no kissing scenes. But there's a crap ton of Foe Yay and Unresolved Sexual Tension on these two. And now that it has been established that Kid's in a dungeon and he's chained to the walls, I'm beginning to feel a little kinky.**

… **Don't give me that look.**

_**It's nine o'clock. Pay me with some reviews for this effort.**_

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**pLAnS**

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_Plans are nothing; planning is everything._

~Dwight D. Eisenhower

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Maybe it's sacrilegious.

Maybe it's demeaning. (But she doesn't give a damn about demeaning, so that's not really qualified to be on this list. Yet here it is written.)

Maybe it's flat-out insulting. (Well, he _is_ the enemy.)

Maybe it might be the beginnings of a relationship. (_This_ was all the Demon Sword's fault. _If only_ Lady Medusa had expressly and specifically ordered her not to kill the test subject...)

But for whatever reasons it might have been, Crona Gorgon will not stop calling the test subject Shinigami Boy. It fits him. Even the Sword had taken to it, and the Weapon and the Witch agreed on very few things.

She thought it an omen.

The Shinigami Boy had never said his real name. He was silent, except for the times when someone tried to insult his beloved Shibusen. Crona had plenty of insults to go around, but then again the test subject was no fool. He stopped replying to her, and simply saved his energy.

It was getting deader than roadkill in the dungeons.

Crona slid a hand over her face. She groaned. "This is boring. Any tricks you can show me?"

Shinigami Boy simply glared at her.

She narrowed her eyes. "You're useless. The Demon Sword makes for far better company than you."

"I don't believe that's the case for me."

She's genuinely surprised. He's never been one to talk.

"How can you even stand to be on the same side as him?" She can see his teeth grinding, and he's either trying not to show weakness or trying not to spit out any remarks that might end painfully... for him, at least. "I can barely handle the images he puts into my subconscious. I'm afraid I might not last long."

Crona gets up from the rickety wooden chair she's supposed to sit in to watch over him. "Ah. See? That's it. You're a shinigami. You are immortal unless... well. Unless. But that's not the point, this is: You can live over long periods of time. Your father is older than my Lady Medusa. And there's the thing: We need the Demon Sword and the Black Blood in one jar, and whether that jar retains its original mind is of no consequence to us. Your body is the one thing we need. Hell, I don't even care if the apocalypse comes early and wipes everything out, as long as I die with the Lady. But if all is well, you might actually outlast everyone. That's what we want. We want the strongest organism to ever walk the earth to slay your god and establish a rule where evolution is the new norm."

His eyes widen, his teeth slacken, and Crona can see Shinigami Boy is no more than what he's called if you just take away the "Shinigami" part: a simple boy.

A frightened, helpless, hopeless boy.


End file.
